1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of producing and marketing non-standardized goods.
2. Background Description
Mass-produced goods tend to be highly standardized in order to maximize manufacturing efficiencies. Those efficiencies include, but are not limited to, cost savings from long production runs and the reduction of so-called “set up time” required to change an assembly line over from one configuration to another. Some goods, however, are not as standardized; instead, for certain goods, each item may be configured to meet the requirements of its intended purchaser. In classic “one off” goods, such as bespoke suits or commissioned furniture, unique one-of-a-kind items may be designed on the basis of customer interviews conducted by the individual craftsman who will make the item. In general, the prevalence of unique “one off” products appears to have been in continual decline (relative to the number of highly standardized, mass-produced products) since the development and large-scale implementation of mass production. This is in part attributable to the fact that a high degree of customization undercuts efficiencies that come from the use of mass production techniques.
The persistence of non-standardized goods may be explained by the fact that, even though a high degree of standardization may contribute to efficient mass production, some types of products do not lend themselves to complete standardization. By way of example and not limitation, trucks are typically sold with a broad range of options. In the United States, truck options may even include the availability of alternative engines from different engine manufacturers for use on a single model of truck. This is done to accommodate customer preferences which may be based on efficiency considerations relevant to the customer's business. For example, a customer that has already acquired tools and technical expertise for the purpose of maintaining a particular make of truck engine may not consider the acquisition of a new truck unless it has the same make of engine. (In the United States, not all truck engine manufacturers make trucks and not all truck manufacturers make engines.) Similarly, a customer that typically uses a truck for long-haul purposes is likely to require optional “sleeper cab” facilities that a customer using the same type of truck for local hauling would not be willing to pay for. In addition, requirements for safety and handling options relevant to various types of road and weather conditions may differ from customer to customer.
Thus, notwithstanding the efficiencies available from mass production techniques, there are still products (including, but not limited to, trucks) which must be customized, at least to an extent, because of customer-specific requirements that differ from end user to end user.
In order to optimize the tradeoffs between maximizing production efficiencies while at the same time making products that meet the individualized requirements of particular customers, manufacturers have developed techniques of combining options into bundles so that batches of similarly customized products may be made together, rather than making each customized product individually. Existing approaches to developing such bundles, however, have been driven by the choices of product designers and have not afforded a systematic way of incorporating customer preference data. Product designers do not appear to have had access to an effective way to group product options into customer-choice-based bundles.